The main border between the U.S. and canada, our number one trading partner, stretches for 5,500 miles. The most precious fraction is tucked into the middle of the Great Lakes, where the Detroit River bisects the U.S. and Canadian auto industries. Between Detroit and Windsor, Ont., at the river's narrowest point, lies a ribbon of reinforced concrete roadway, 47 feet wide and less than 2 miles long, laid on suspended steel joists: the Ambassador Bridge. At 75 years old the Ambassador is out-of-date, its four lanes too narrow and its approach too steep, but none of the 130 other crossings to Canada is so perfectly placed. For tractor-trailers, the closest bridge is two hours out of the way. They haul $100 billion of goods across the Ambassador every year—a quarter of the $400 billion in total trade with Canada; 40% of all truck shipments from the U.S. to points north cross this span.
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